[bettalover2033]

I have been having too much difficulty with breeding my HM dragons from DarkMoon17. They have been tail biting a lot and I really don't know what to do about that. I added aquarium salt and some IAL in the tank, but see no improvement. The caudals are so badly bitten up on all three males. It is sad and I feel so guilty because I don't know what to do with them and would like to see them happy again. They rarely flare also. If anyone has any information on this, please send me a PM or VM soon.

In better news, I now have fry. They are a day old and hatched 2/29/12. I thought I wasnt going to make a log, but that didn't work out too well since I wanted to continue showing plenty pictures. The pair spawned on 2/27/12 starting at 8:00 pm eastern time and ending at 9:36pm eastern time. It took the female 5 days to finally follow the male to the nest.

Currently: 3/1/12
The fry are now 2 days old and I have just made a guess at 25-30 fry with just seeing tails and no counting. The male is still tending to them and the nest. I must say that this is the calmest spawn I have ever seen. The male has little to no real work to be done. These fry seem t be very strong and have the power to get themselves back up to the nest from midway down.

So the dad is not going to be very tired after his responsibility.

Here is some pictures of the pair.
http://http://s1000.photobucket.com...t=SupeRedHMPKSpawn034.jpg&mediafilter=noflash

http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=SupeRedHMPKSpawn032.jpg

Female Also gathering the eggs.
http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=SupeRedHMPKSpawn031.jpg

Heh. My favorite of them all. The male got a little carried away and tried to force too fast and was stuck like this for a bit:
http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=SupeRedHMPKSpawn030.jpg
Ahh the joys of breeding!

http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=SupeRedHMPKSpawn029.jpg

Still adding eggs in the nest.
http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=SupeRedHMPKSpawn028.jpg
In this picture, unfortunately you can see the "spoon head deformity." I am happy that it isn't something too bad. It isn't something that can kill them either or have them miserable for their life.

And a really cool video of the spawn.

http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=SupeRedHMPKSpawn026.mp4

As many already know, I am very excited about this spawn and can't wait to see them at a month or two.

Any questions, comments, or interests are welcome. Please feel free to add anything you like (that's appropriate of course)!

 

[betta lover1507]

oh my goodness congrats on the spawn BL2033 :-D what a gorgeous pair, the two females that i ever spawned both helped the male put the eggs in the nest just one male ate the eggs >-< (that was a long time ago, strawberry and rose)

 

[tpocicat]

Congratulations on your new spawn.

 

[MrVampire181]

WOAH. Save a pair for me! I love super red HMPKs. My all time favorite.

 

[bettalover2033]

@Everyone: Thank you for the positive feedback! I enjoy to read your suggestions and opinions ect.

@MrVampire181: Will Do!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update 8:00PM 3/1/12:
They are not free swimming yet, but they should be at this time tomorrow(8:14-9:00pm eastern time)

The male is still tending to the nest and doing an amazing job as well. I rarely see wrigglers. They are just stiff little tails sticking out of the nest and I dont see any beady little eyes yet LOL. I have only seen two fall out of the nest and one has managed to get himself back up from midway of the 5 inches in tank water so far. So as I have said before, They are REALLY strong fry and I think they are going to be amazing! It will be interesting to see some nice light ones as well.

I really hope to see them with very fat stomach's by Tuesday since I always start feeding in exactly one week. By this time they are very carnivorous and their instinct to eat is already present.

I also dont want to bore you guys.

So what I did was I wanted to post more pictures. These are pictures of the pair when I first opened the bag, then the fry. I am going to show the fry pictures with a circle around so it is easier to spot.

So here is the pair just opening the bag.
Male Obviously-

Female-

(She was the hardest to get pictures of!)

The male wasn't too fond of the camera either so I only got one of the male.

BUT...I did manage to get a really nice video of the pair with my camera. The female is in the mason jar and the male was ALREADY trying to get her under the IAL while she was in the jar and that was when I first let them see each other after conditioning.I will post the video once it uploads to Photobucket as well as the pictures of the fry.

I am very excited about this spawn and cant wait to see results, but really want to make sure that they are perfect size.

Again, I didnt want to bore you guys too much since there isnt many exciting things happening yet.

 

[bettalover2033]

I dont think I need to put a ring around the fry since I double checked the photos and they are pretty easy and clear to see.

First is the video of the pair when they were first released to each other:
http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums... Spawn/?action=view&current=jaysbettas015.mp4

I also went pretty far back to show their size. They are very big fish! The female alone is larger than my Male hmpk Dragon. I was thinking half giants, but not sure.

And the fry pictures! So cute!

In the second picture the fry are exactly where there looks to be a gap of bubbles. I am definitely thinking of posting the first fry picture into the contest.

Also the last picture the fry are just above his caudal. Right in the middle.

 

[Curlyfatbottom]

I'll b following this to.
Can't wait to see how your frys turn out

 

[MrVampire181]

Wow this is a nice pair. I'd be spawning them like once a month lol. Can't wait to see how they turn out.

 

[bettalover2033]

Pfff...that's not my plan at all! *Looks around Cautiously*.

No but seriously, that might just be my plan. Though I might try my other few pairs I have. And am getting soon.

 

[BeautifulBetta]

Oh yay!!! You made a log! Look at those sweet little things <3 Totally wish i could buy a pair off you when they're old enough. I've reaaaally come to like HMPKs! Thank you Skyline <3 lmao

 

[bettalover2033]

Oh yay!!! You made a log! Look at those sweet little things <3 Totally wish i could buy a pair off you when they're old enough. I've reaaaally come to like HMPKs! Thank you Skyline <3 lmao

As have I! I think that to me HMPKs have really shown their real sides. I still can't say that CT isn't my favorite tail type, but for real show quality fish I have to say that HMPKs are my favorite.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will update in a few minutes with some pictures and such. I will try to get pictures with each update I post to keep you guys interested. Some interesting things with this spawn!!

 

[MoonShadow]

Gorgeous pair! I love me some nice reds! Can't wait to see the babies!

 

[Curlyfatbottom]

Hmpk
Have two stander
The straight edge and round

 

[MrVampire181]

Hmpk
Have two stander
The straight edge and round

Rounded plakats are Trad. Pks. Different from HMPK.

 

[Curlyfatbottom]

Rounded plakats are Trad. Pks. Different from HMPK.

Oh that nice to know.
So even a 8+ ray with an 180 spread with an round edge are know as tradition Pk

 

[MrVampire181]

Oh that nice to know.
So even a 8+ ray with an 180 spread with an round edge are know as tradition Pk

Depends. Traditional plakat has longer ventral fins and a longer body. Rays and fin spread don't really matter. Ideally a traditional PK has 180 degree spread with round edges, longer body, longer ventral fins. Most of the time they have two rays but I've seen up to 8 before.

These are traditional PKs:

http://ebetta.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/giant-plakat-betta-fish.jpg

http://www.quakerbettas.com/images/Fish jpg/PlakatJimSonnier.jpg

http://nippyfish.net/icecream/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/1571922216_62f6d28a29_z.jpg

HMPKs:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ray-br...M0008 Platinum White Halfmoon Plakat Male.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_W2W1wWnpf...Hg/prPNOMjhbeo/s1600/salamander+for+sale2.JPG

http://media.photobucket.com/image/halfmoon plakats/korwhord/Halfmoon%20Plakats/2-2011/IMG_6878.jpg

 

[Curlyfatbottom]

Look closely to the hmpk pix that u show.
The first two are straight n the last one is round.

 

[Curlyfatbottom]

Idk how ibc class the hmpk
But theyre three different type To me
Round and straight edge with long anal fin
The one that cross into the Dt line(not as pretty as the first two)
All even around with a clean edging With a flat short anal fin

 

[bettalover2033]

Update

Update 3/4/12
The fry are now 6 days old and all but two are free swimming. They are pretty hard to catch on camera at these first few weeks as any breeder with an average quality camera knows the annoyance of trying to get them.

I did manage to get a video of one of the fry. Very tiny white speck will swim upward away from the camera:
http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums/af122/bettalover2033/?action=view&current=jaysbettas001.mp4

I might be updating every week with more interesting updates until they get bigger for the camera and I can actually find them.

Well something really interesting happened while the male was putting them back into the nest the other day. (He is still in the nest) Will explain later... So I noticed the male was picking them up and spitting them into the nest and then when I looked closer I saw him flaring. At first I thought he was fixing his beard because he had a mouth full of the fry, but no...he was FLARING at the fry. Probably the weirdest thing I have ever seen when breeding. He is the first male to ever flare at the fry. I think it was because they kept falling. Everytime they would fall out again after he puts them in the nest, he literally watches them and when they start to fall again he flares.:roll:

It was the most interesting thing I have ever seen with fry this age still leaving the father with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another update:

I have decided to try the Father with Fry method. Many reports have results of very healthy fry, being able to leave the fry in with the siblings longer because of the "alpha" fish being in there, there is no need to fight for territory; less chance of egg eaters, and many with less aggression with the siblings. Some success stories say that they can have them with each other for a bit longer than 2.5 months.

I have wanted to try this for a while. Any suggestions? or Opinions?

 

[BeautifulBetta]

I actually heard this was a good method as well! I think Victoria from www.bettysplendens.com wrote an article on it. Was very tempted to try it myself! Managed to keep GoldenEye in with his fry for about 4 days after they started free-swimming. By then he still wouldnt eat and I didnt want him to die so I took him out lol. Would love to try that though!